MCLEAN, VA — Four students from McLean are included in the first round of winners in the 2025 National Merit Scholarship program.
About 830 high school seniors in the U.S. won the corporate-sponsored scholarships, providing annual awards between $1,000 and $10,0000. Most of the scholarships are renewable for four years of undergraduate study, but some awards are single payments between $2,500 and $5,000.
Winners may use the scholarships at a regionally accredited college and university in the U.S. Students who were National Merit Scholarship Finalists were chosen by corporations because they are children of employees, are residents of communities they serve or plan to pursue college majors or careers the company wants to support.
Claire Y. Chen, a student at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, received the National Merit Geico Scholarship. Her probable field of study is academia.
“The scholarship reflects the interest of GEICO in the support of higher education
and its desire to recognize and honor outstanding children of our employees,” according to NMS.
Langley High School students Jayden H. Leo and Riley Katherine Seewar, who both gave law as their probable field of student, received National Merit Corporate Scholarships.
Leo received the National Merit George Watts Hill Scholarship, which is sponsored by the Research Triangle Institute.
“Research Triangle Institute sponsors college undergraduate scholarships for children of its employees,” according to NMS. “The awards are named to honor George Watts Hill for the continuous leadership and support he gave as Chairman of the Board from RTI’s formation in 1958 until his death in 1993. Affiliated with three major universities, RTI performs interdisciplinary research in many scientific fields for business, industry, and government.”
Seewar received the National Merit Boeing Scholarship. The aerospace company annually awards scholarships to the children of its employees.
Aileen Wu, a Vienna resident attending McLean High School, received the National Merit NVIDIA Corporation Scholarship. Her probable field of study is finance.
Based in Silicon Valley, NVIDIA awards scholarships to the outstanding children of its employees. The awards “reflect the company’s commitment to its employees, their families, and higher education,” according to NMS.
Students were entered into the 2025 National Merit Scholarship competition by taking the 2023 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as juniors. There were more than 16,000 semifinalists chosen from the highest-scoring students, representing less than 1 percent of American high school seniors.
To be considered for finalist status, semifinalists had to complete a scholarship application with an essay and information about extracurricular activities, awards, and leadership positions, have an outstanding academic record, receive recommendation from a school official and earn SAT scores confirming their PSAT performance. About 15,000 semifinalists advanced to finalist status.
About 6,930 finalists will win National Merit Scholarships totaling almost $26 million in 2025. According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, “Winners are the Finalist candidates judged to have the strongest combination of academic skills and achievements, extracurricular accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies.”
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation will announce winners of its own National Merit $2,500 Scholarships on May 7, and college-sponsored scholarship winners will be announced on June 4 and July 14.
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